WATERSIDE DISPUTE.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17533, 15 October 1928, Page 6

WATERSIDE DISPUTE.

There is a decidedly dangerous spirit abroad amongst the maritime workers in Australia. Whilst the moderate section is anxious to keep the trouble from spreading and to reach a settlement at the earliest moment, the extremist faction led by Mr Jock Gardner and his Communist colleagues, is spoiling for a fight and is determined, if possible, to bring about, a general upheaval. Mr Stanley Bruce has intim)ated to the Seamen's Union that the. Government cannot permit the present conditions to continue as they are causing grave suffering and loss to the community, and he asks for assurances that the inter-State vessels will be manned. The reply by the Labour Council is practically a challenge to constituted authority to assert itself. Some of the Unions which have been appealed to to join the ranks of the idle have declined the invitation, but others have practically decided to throw in their lot with the strikers, and there is a very grave danger of a general hold-up for experience has shown that when a strike does arise the members of the unions do not weigh the pros and cons of the dispute but submissively obey the mandate to " down tools " Unity of course is essential to unionism, but there is a decided danger of its being exploited by unscrupulous leaders, who being exalted to positions of power, use that power arbitrarily for the furtherance of their own ends. The trades unions were originally called into power to combat oppression, but it is patent that they have on occasions been more tyranically treated at the hands of their own leaders than they were by the " capitalist." In the words of an Australian journal:—"A new type of Labour leader has arisen whose doctrine is that the proletariat—which means the members of his own particular branch, union or federation—has sovereign powers, and that any interference witli those powers by the Government is an act of tyranny. Their preaching, in public and in private, has been that any Government exercises authority over them and their followers only so long as it pander to the latest whim of the loudest pedagogue. Under the rules of many unions, members who disobey the rules or the officers, eveu in order to obey the law of the land, may be fined or expelled from membership. That is regarded as a quite legitimate means of protecting working-class interests and safeguarding ' loyalty ' and ' solidarity.' " The present trouble is, in essence, a revolt against the law. An award by the Arbitration Tribunal in one or two details did not meet the approval of some of the watersiders, and they precipitated a strike. The federation ordered them lo resume, but the instructions were ignored and ..the indications now are that the extremists will so manipulate the situation that the trade of the whole country will bo held up, and a disastrous strike engineered which a very large percentage of the men directly concerned are anxious to avoid.